A day at the park
by Entropic Kitten
Summary: Edward has to take Jasper to the park to try to help him with his control around humans, for an empath, he's not that good with emotions.


**Hey my lovlies, here's another random story for you. I thought of it when my youngest threw up today... It's got a bit of Jasper cuteness in it. Enjoy**

**DISCLAIMER: SM owns the characters I just use them for evil.**

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"You want me to what?" I asked, incredulous.

"I want you to take Jasper out" Carlisle looked at Jasper and smiled encouragingly "and show him what you can about the humans to make it easier for him to withstand the call of their blood."

"But why me?" I was whining, I knew it, but I couldn't help it. "Why not Rosalie? She's the one who wants to be human."

_Fuck you Eddiekins_. Rosalie thought from the garage as she threw a hammer through the window of my Volvo. I winced as I heard the glass shatter.

"Because, Edward, you can tell him their hopes and dreams, their thoughts, their secrets." Carlisle sighed, I could tell from his thoughts that he wouldn't give up this new idea of helping Jasper to adjust.

"Fine." I pouted in defeat.

~*~

"Where are we going?" Jasper asked from the passenger side of Carlisle's flashy, black Mercedes that we'd been forced to take as a result of Rosalie's tantrum in the garage.

"Seattle." I replied dully.

_I can see that._ He thought bitterly, watching the road signs fly past the car. "And how is taking me into a crowded city a good idea?" He asked aloud.

"We're going to a park." I shrugged; it had been Alice's idea to take him to a park in Seattle. I'd thought taking him to a small town like Port Angeles would have been safer, but no one argues with Alice.

When we stopped the car at a large park in the city's outskirts I could already tell that this was going to be a struggle for him. As a wave of burning hunger that was not my own hit me I realised that this was going to be a struggle for us both.

"Control yourself Jasper." I hissed from between clenched teeth, hastily swallowing the venom pooling from the buffet of human scents around us.

For 20 torturous seconds I had to restrain both myself and Jasper from leaping out of the car and eating everybody in the park, which was NOT the plan.

Finally Jasper managed to reign in his ability and the thirst disappeared, though the burn was still there, as always.

_Sorry._ Jasper thought, still struggling with himself as we sat stock still in the car watching the humans who had barely escaped their deaths wander around oblivious to the danger we presented.

"I'm ready." He mumbled eventually, turning to open the door.

"Brace yourself." I whispered as I followed him out of the car.

The human scent was stronger outside of the car, though the breeze diffused it a little, mixing in the earthy smell of leaves, dirt and flowers. Hotdog vendors stood around the park and their stalls added the off putting stench of human food to the mishmash of aromas.

"How are you going?" I asked, as his thirst, and how to quench it, were the most predominant thoughts in his head.

"I'm ok." He muttered, watching a small child playing in a sandbox a few feet away.

"How about we go sit under a tree and get this exercise out of the way?" I asked, gesturing to an isolated bench nearby.

_Fine. _He started towards the bench when a small girl barrelled into his legs, she stumbled backwards and hit the ground with a thud.

Jasper's thoughts turned from defensive to attack as the initial shock of the contact faded and his awareness of the girl's elevated heartbeat, and the blood it was pumping through her body, rose.

"Jasper." I hissed, grabbing his arm.

"Fear." He mumbled unintelligibly. _She's afraid of me. _He stood still as she rose to her feet and ran off towards her mother, the salty smell of her tears burning in my nose.

"Of course she's afraid of you; you were going to eat her." I muttered, pulling him to the bench.

"How would she know that though?" He asked me, allowing himself to be pulled along.

"We're predators, Jasper." I explained. "The human's, our prey, can tell this, though they don't understand why. That little girl was afraid of you, yet she reconciled it in her mind to the general fear of strangers she already has. For her age, that girl was remarkably aware of her surroundings."

_So they're like animals? Their instinct is to escape and stay away from predators?_

"I guess." I sighed. "But the whole point of this is for you to see them as something more than prey. Let's start with that old lady there." I pointed to an old woman who was sitting by the lake feeding breadcrumbs to ducks.

Jasper watched her disinterestedly. "ok."

"So she's feeding the ducks, you can see that easily. But what is her motivation for doing so? Why does this old pensioner spend her money, which she could use for other things, to buy bread for the ducks?"

"Why?" Jasper asked, looking bored and carving a picture of a horse out of the wood of the bench with his fingernail.

"Because it connects her to her late husband, they used to feed the ducks together when they were courting, erm… dating, and it was a tradition they carried forward into their marriage." I explained after reading the woman's thoughts about the subject.

"So she spends money on feeding these mangy ducks for the sake of some dead tradition?" Jasper's thoughts were bitter and filled with disgust for the wasted resources.

"Why are you being so difficult?" I muttered darkly. "Fine, why don't we look at the young couple over there?"

Jasper turned to face them. _As they look at each other the woman feels nothing but love and affection while the man feels lust and greed_. "And how will this make me think better of them? The man is simply using the woman to get what he wants."

I probed into the man's thoughts and saw that Jasper was correct in his assumption, the man was sleeping with a bunch of other women while telling this one that he loved her and all for her father's money.

I sighed. Humanity at it's finest.

"Alright, how about this baby in the stroller over there?" I indicated towards a baby in a pale pink bonnet.

Jasper's features softened as he watched the baby flail her little fists around. _She feels content and love. _

"She's watching the clouds float by above her. The only thoughts in her head are about the shapes and colors."

The baby girl let out a shrill cry. "Now she's hungry. Her thoughts are of her bottle, just an image of a bottle of milk."

Jasper watched as the baby's mother picked her up and started to feed her. _Love, the mother's feeling unconditional love._

"Yes. The mother's thoughts are all of love for her child too." I replied to his thought.

We sat and watched the baby and her family for 2 hours, she drank a small amount of milk, then fell into a light sleep, in which Jasper asked me to narrate her dreams to him.

"She's basically dreaming about her mother's face, talking to her but she doesn't understand the words, just her mother's smile. The smile stands out." I explained.

"She's feeling love, even in her dreams." Jaspers murmured quietly, as if afraid to wake her, even at this distance.

Suddenly Jasper's thoughts turned hostile and his gift went haywire again, flooding me with alarm and protectiveness. "What?" I asked him, standing up quickly.

"She's in pain. The baby, she's in a lot of pain." Jasper started to stand, as if to go over there and relieve the baby of her pain himself, his thoughts echoed his actions. He truly intended to go and use his gift on the child to take her pain away.

"Wait." I placed a hand on his arm and we stood by helplessly as the baby began to scream, loud, ear splitting shrieks.

Jasper growled low in his chest as the mother scurried over to the baby, picking her up and softly rubbing her back. The baby continued to wail as I realised I could almost feel her pain, it was as though I had Jasper's gift, my abdomen burned and my stomach twisted with pain that was not my own. I figured it must have been the primitive nature of her thoughts, she thought merely of the pain and thus, me being able to read her thoughts I could feel it myself.

Then, as quickly as it began, it stopped and the baby burped, then vomited up all the milk she had consumed before her sleep. The screaming stopped for a fraction of a second then continued, doubled in intensity.

"The pain stopped." Jasper sighed, relieved. "What are her thoughts now? Her emotions range from hunger to fear to sleepiness."

"She's afraid of the pain, hungry from vomiting her meal up and tired as she was woken from her sleep earlier than she should have been." I replied.

"You could tell that, just from her primitive thoughts?" Jasper asked, amazed.

"No Jasper, it's called empathy. From the emotions you described to me, and from the situation at hand I could easily discern her thoughts, you could do it yourself, you know? For an empath, you don't know a lot about the emotions you feel, or the people you feel them from, do you?"

"I see." Jasper turned to watch the baby, now happily in her mother's arms, the vomit having been wiped away.

"Really Jasper, how would you feel if you were nice and comfortable, full and content, then the next thing you know you were in pain and hungry again?"

"I get it." Jasper turned to me a smiled. "I know why Alice sent us here now. Thank you Edward."

"No problem. Now let's go before you decide you want to kidnap the baby and raise it as your own." I joked, and then sobered as I heard his thoughts on the matter.

_I could do that and they'd never catch me._

"Let's go Jasper." I said firmly.

"Ok. Ok." Jasper took one last look at the little baby that had changed his outlook on the whole human race, before following me to the car.

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**AN: Aww gotta love clucky Jasper. =]**

**But seriously, I feel so bad for my daughter when she's freshly bathed and fed and all warm and comfy then BAM she gets a tummy ache and throws up. Then she has to get undressed and cold and woken up and changed. To top it off the poor thing has to taste vomit and it comes out her nose and =[**

**Poor babies.**


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